House Communications Eyeing FCC Oversight Hearing Next Week
The House Communications Subcommittee is considering holding its first FCC oversight hearing of this Congress next week, potentially on Jan. 14, several communications policy lobbyists told us. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will likely draw most lawmakers’ questions, but fellow Commissioners Anna Gomez (D) and Olivia Trusty (R) will also appear before the subpanel, lobbyists said. Its last FCC oversight hearing was in July 2024 (see 2407090049). Carr testified at a House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing in May on the agency's FY 2026 budget request (see 2505210074).
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“We don’t comment on potential or prospective hearings unless” House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., “specifically mentions one, especially before an official notice,” a spokesperson emailed. The panel must provide notice about any hearings a week in advance.
Lobbyists said they expect Carr to again face significant criticism from Democrats during the House Communications hearing over his media regulatory actions since taking the chairmanship in January 2025. That includes his comments against ABC and parent Disney in mid-September, which were widely perceived as the cause of the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air (see 2509220059).
Carr sparred with Senate Commerce Committee Democrats during that panel’s FCC oversight hearing last month, which covered the Kimmel incident and drew a call to resign from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., over the commission’s probe of Audacy’s KCBS San Francisco (see 2512170070). Carr also faced pushback during that hearing for saying that the FCC “is not formally an independent agency” (see 2512170067).